M&S worker gets pounds 280,000 after leg is amputated

Monday 18 May 1998 23:02 BST

Click to followThe Independent Online

A MARKS & Spencer sales assistant whose leg had to be amputated after a seemingly minor accident at work was yesterday awarded pounds 280,000 damages against the company. Karen Gower, 28, was loading food into a freezer cabinet at the company's store in Felixstowe, Suffolk, when a metal grille fell and struck her left shin in September 1991. The bruising injury triggered a rare condition, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD). Three years later, the left leg was amputated above the knee.

Miss Gower, of Felixstowe - a keen sportswoman before the accident - was at the High Court in London in her wheelchair yesterday to hear a judge assess her damages at pounds 279,641, plus interest. Deputy judge Nigel Baker QC said the award was "provisional" and that, if RSD spread spontaneously to her arms or other parts of her body in the future, she could return to court to seek more damages.